DONALD Trump has vowed to ‘cut off all trade with Spain’ in an extraordinary Oval Office outburst over the Spanish government’s refusal to allow US troops to use bases in Andalucia for ongoing operations in the Middle East.
The US president singled out Spain for criticism during a pool spray at the White House alongside German chancellor Friedrich Merz, whom he thanked for backing Washington as American forces continue their strikes on Iran.
He also lavished praise on NATO boss Mark Rutte before lashing out at Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez.
He said: “Spain has been terrible, in fact I told Scott [Bessent, the US secretary to the treasury] to cut off all dealings with Spain.”
He continued: “Spain, first of all, it started when every European nation at my request paid 5 per cent [of GDP on defence] which they should be doing, and everybody was enthusiastic about it, Germany, everybody, and Spain didn’t do it.
“And now Spain actually said that we can’t use their bases, and that’s alright, we don’t want to, we can use their base if we want, we can just fly in and use it. Nobody’s gonna tell us not to use it, but we don’t have to, but they were unfriendly and so I told them Spain has absolutely nothing that we need, other than great people, they have great people, but they don’t have great leadership.
“Ass you know they were the only country in NATO that would not agree to go up to 5 per cent. I don’t think they wanted to agree to go up to anything, they wanted to keep it at 2 per cent and they don’t pay the 2 per cent.
“So we’re gonna cut off all trade with Spain, we don’t want anything to do with Spain.”
The rant comes after US military planes were forced to leave Andalucia over the weekend after the Spanish government blocked the use of its bases for strikes on Iran.
Flight tracking websites showed fifteen US aircraft departing Rota and Moron in southern Spain after foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares said that the bases could not be used for ongoing military operations in the Middle East.
Rota and Moron, in Cadiz and Sevilla respectively, are jointly operated with the US – but fall under Spain’s sovereignty.
The development came after senior officials, including Albares and prime minister Pedro Sanchez, decried the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, which have led to the death of the supreme leader, as ‘unjustified’ and ‘dangerous’.
Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Sunday, Sanchez called for an ‘immediate de-escalation’ after branding the attack ‘unilateral’ and ‘against international law’.
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“It is possible to be against a hateful regime, as Spanish society as a whole is against the Iranian regime, and at the same time be against an unjustified, dangerous military intervention that is outside international law,” Sanchez said.
The remarks came after strikes by US-Israeli forces on Saturday killed Iran’s longtime ruler, Ayatollah Khamenei, as well as at least 555 people throughout the country, according to the Iranian NGO Red Crescent.
The conflict quickly spilled over throughout the Middle East, with retaliatory strikes from Tehran targeting Israel, Oman, Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, Jordan and Cyprus, and reportedly downing several US fighter jets in Kuwait.
Spain was joined by a handful of EU countries – including Ireland, Sweden, Denmark and Slovenia – in criticising the war, while the UK, France, Italy and Germany publicly backed military action against Iran.
